OK, over the weekend I sent off an email to the department for a few details regarding numbers. It is a bit unclear, as they only sent over the encounter rates for the second half of the season, but it is clear they were including all in their calculations. So, based on the of the season, the were 1423 chinook left in the quota and 1697 left in the sub legal quota. The catch ratio was 44% legal to sub legal. They estimate a 20% mortality. They did not provide a sub legal to adult ratio for impacts and I think the person who answered was unclear as to how that works. In any case, only 24% (342) of the quota was taken when we hit 97% of the sub legal limit. This does not make sense as a 44/100 legal to sub-legal rate would be 1697 X .97 then times .44 and equal a catch of 724 adults.
Is there something I am missing. Here is the email I got.


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I received your email and would like to offer some insight, as you requested, regarding the Marine Area 11 fishery and estimates.
First, I would like to state that sublegal encounters (ratio) are only one of the fishery controls we use to monitor impacts in that fishery. We also must monitor impacts to unmarked Chinook salmon, as part of our obligation under the Endangered Species Act.

The Marine Area 11 summer Chinook fishery was scheduled to begin July 1 and was closed on July 15 due to high sublegal encounters (Chinook under the 22-inch minimum size limit). The fishery controls for Marine Area 11 were harvest quota (1,423 Chinook) and sublegal encounters (1,697 Chinook). At the time the fishery was closed, the fishery had reached 97% of sublegal encounters, even though only 24% of the harvest quota was caught. I have also attached a letter the department circulated recently with more information related to the Marine Area 10 and 11 fisheries.


To specifically answer your direct questions, here are the numbers and responses below:



What is the expected mortality of the sub legals caught? Our estimates apply a 20 percent release mortality to sublegal fish encountered and released.

What was the ratio of adult to sub legal? Based on the estimates we had in hand we estimated 44% adult/sublegal ratio.

and lastly,

What is the ratio given for sub legal fish to adult impacts - that is to say, how may sub-legals equal one adult fish impact.

We don’t use that as an indicator here, but is the mortality rate guidance we apply to our fisheries throughout Washington: